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'How to Survive a Plague' review: Fascinating documentary chronicles the battle against AIDS from the front lines

Pioneer Press

Posted:
10/18/2012 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated:
10/25/2012 10:25:12 AM CDT

The title doesn't necessarily convey this, but "How to Survive a Plague" is an inspiring and hopeful documentary.

Beginning in the early '80s, "Plague" tracks the efforts of people -- most of them gay, most of them men, most of them with no background in science or politics -- to kick-start the search for treatments for AIDS.

Starting with informational meetings in crammed living rooms, these pioneers cajoled lawmakers, picketed pharmaceutical manufacturers and generally raised a ruckus in an effort to force them to pay attention to the fact that, as activist and author Larry Kramer says in archival footage, "Until we get our acts together, all of us are as good as dead."

The growing power of the movement is fascinating, as are its teeny origins with men who held "science clubs" to try to figure out where AIDS was coming from. Watching the 30-year-old footage and knowing how the disease progressed is bound to make viewers conclude that most of the young men we see on-screen are no longer with us. But Kramer, along with a surprisingly large number of his fellow activists, is alive, as we learn in present-day interviews at the end of the movie.

Whether that's because they were on the front line of the fight or because they simply lucked out, they decline to say. But their presence in this moving and often wickedly funny film is a testament to the passionate fight Kramer calls "the proudest achievement the gay population of the world can ever claim.

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-- Chris Hewitt

"HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE"

Directed by: David France

Rated: Not rated, but contains strong language and disturbing images

Should you go? It belongs with "The Times of Harvey Milk," "Common Threads: Stories From a Quilt," "Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter" and "Silverlake Life" on any list of great gay-themed docs. ***-1/2

Early activists raised a ruckus in an effort to force people to notice the fact that, as
activist and author Larry Kramer says in archival footage, "Until we get our acts
together, all of us are as good as dead."